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To date, the cultural and societal effects of controversial advertising have been insufficiently considered. This study aims to investigate how advertising that uses violent representations of women transgresses the taboo of gender-based violence.

This study encompasses a visual analysis of the subject positions of women in five violent advertising representations and a critical discourse analysis of the defensive statements provided by the client organisations subsequent to the public outrage generated by the campaigns.

The authors identify taboo transgression in the Tease, Piece of Meat and Conquered subject positions, wherein women are represented as suggestive, dehumanised and submissive. Client organisations seek to defend these taboo transgressions through the use of three discursive strategies – subverting interpretations, making authority claims and denying responsibility – which legitimise the control of the organisations but simultaneously work to obscure the power relations at play.

The representational authority that advertisers hold as cultural intermediaries in society highlights the need for greater consideration of the ethical responsibilities in producing controversial advertisements, especially those which undermine the status of women.

Controversial advertising that transgresses the taboo of violence against women reinforces gender norms and promotes ambiguous and adverse understandings of women’s subjectivities by introducing pollution and disorder to gender politics.

This paper critically assesses the societal implications of controversial advertising practices, thus moving away from the extant focus on managerial implications. Through a conceptualisation of controversial advertising as transgressing taboo boundaries, the authors highlight how advertising plays an important role in shifting these boundaries whereby taboos come to be understood as generative and evolving. However, this carries moral implications which may have damaging societal effects.

The democratic political product is complex and untangible. An underlying assumption of a democratic system is the involvement of voters, or consumers, but with contemporary political apathy this aspect is relatively unacknowledged. This paper aims to explore the role of the consumer in political branding.

Two contrasting case studies compare the balance between the corporate brand of the political party and the brand image of two different kinds of local politician. Aaker's “Brand Equity Ten” is adapted to provide a suitable conceptual framework for the case study comparison.

Investigating the interaction between the community and politicians drew out important implications for the political brand. The paper concludes that managing the political brand entails a recognition of the inherent duality that resides in the political product. In an environment of reduced differentiation of political offerings to the electoral marketplace it is important for politicians and the political party to make early decisions about which aspect of this brand duality best serves individual careers and the party. Key to this decision is the opinion‐leading role of politically aware consumers.

This research shows that an individual politician's brand can compete with or enhance the corporate political party brand, which implies that political branding must take into account the communication role of the highly involved consumer.

This paper examines the under‐researched area of consumer contribution to political branding. The role of highly involved political consumers in constituency politics is clearly shown to affect the politician's brand equity. This leads to a re‐conceptualisation of the politician's brand vis‐à‐vis the political party brand.

An important concept for social marketing, role modelling has rarely been considered in detail. Instead the focus often lies with celebrity endorsement and has tended to be about product sales rather than behaviour change. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that the role model is complex and offers a typology to identify variations that need consideration by social marketers in selecting the most appropriate role model. Gen Y provides a context for this discussion because they are a significant target market for social marketers.

The article evaluates four theoretical perspectives of role modelling. Following this, an assessment is made of the types of interaction that can be instigated by role modelling variations.

Social marketers often use role models in behaviour change interventions. The typology of role model interactions offers a starting point for research and a more nuanced view of role modelling.

The design of role modelling programs is under‐researched. Through the provision of a typology of role model interaction the article begins to address this gap.

The purpose of the paper is to expand existing qualitative parameters in current marketing research discourse by integrating Barthesian theory into the study of subcultural marketplaces.

While essentially conceptual in nature, this paper adopts a comprehensive intertextual, semiotic approach which argues for the substantive investigation of the marketing text as a foundation for understanding consumption in a subcultural context.

To date, the integration of Barthesian intertextual theory has proved to be an effective method of interrogating subculturally‐oriented materials.

Marketers, in commercial contexts, will access a greater depth of insight into the subcultural market by applying an intertextual, semiotic framework as demonstrated in this paper.

While marketing discourse has taken interest in semiotics, this has typically occurred via the work of US semiologists, rather than the French school in their organic form. This is one of the first papers to locate Barthes within the marketing paradigm as a potential analytical framework. The paper suggests ways in which his influential theories may be applied as a viable analytical tool in qualitative research.

The purpose is to investigate the concepts of subculture, subculture of consumption and brand community with a view to better understanding these three groups and their distinct differences.

The method relies on a literature review and a case study of sporting subculture. Using commentary from the surfing community as an example of subcultural groups we see how they define themselves against consumption oriented groups.

Subcultures are completely different from brand communities (or subcultures of consumption) and while they can be said to share certain common traits the broad philosophical foci of these two groups are vastly incommensurate with one another.

Marketing discourse has perpetually conflated subculture with forms of consumption, i.e. brand communities, yet they are different. By acknowledging and interrogating the key differences marketers may better apprehend the needs, character and activities of subcultural participants and market more strategically.

By dissecting the differences between subculture, subculture of consumption and brand community, this paper offers a re‐conceptualisation of these terms in marketing discourse. In doing so, this paper seeks to dispel some fundamental misapprehensions in marketing and offer an entirely fresh perspective on the value and meaning of subculture.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a selection of papers on such subjects as: increased application of marketing to modern politics; the perceptions of its effectiveness – particularly in closely contested elections; the escalation in funding of campaigns; and the increase in international collaboration.

There has been a marked increase in the quantity and quality of research since the first EJM special issue in 1996. Political marketing is now in the mainstream of research in marketing. The themes in the earlier special issues are tabulated to provide a comparison with those in this issue. The contributions in each paper are summarised.

The paper reveals key issues for research. One is the rapid rise in influence of the internet in the political sphere, particularly in blogging and social networking, although it presents major methodological challenges. There is also a need for more studies crossing cultures and electoral systems and empirical work to establish a firm basis for key constructs and relate those to voter attitudes and behaviour.

Drawing on a number of these papers, key issues for research in political marketing going forward are identified.

This paper aims to look at how participant photography can be used in human resource development (HRD) as a research method that is innovative and inclusive. In published work on traditional photo elicitation methods, the participant is shown previously prepared visual images to create knowledge. This can provoke an inaccurate depiction due to the images being previously prepared. Participant photography differs greatly from the traditional photo-elicitation method. In participant photography, the participant is provided with the opportunity to capture their own visual images of the surrounding environment, allowing for data to be captured through their own eyes. More notably, participants voice their own experiences after taking the photographs as a means for providing rich data for researchers.

Participant photography is an innovative qualitative research method where the research participant is encouraged to document their lived experiences through images taken by the participant. Additionally, the participants take part in individual interviews and group individual sessions to further explain the images.

The research findings can lead to deeper insight into the research topic and even accommodate potential issues related to literacy and language barriers. By introducing a new qualitative research method to HRD, the lived experiences can be documented and examined in a new, different and arguably more accurate way.

Literature discussing participant photography in HRD is limited. Although this limitation puts constraints on this study, it creates an opportunity to further define how participant photography can be used in HRD. This method offers a means for HRD researchers and practitioners to focus on the voices of participants to improve organizations.

This study addresses how participant photography can be used in the field of HRD by describing the process of participant recruitment, implementation of the method, participant interviews, group discussion and analysis. Specifically, this study focused on the practical application, including the method’s strengths, potential weaknesses and ethical challenges.

The method of participant photography has been commonly used in community-based studies, public health projects and medical research projects, yet in ever-changing HRD needs, there are many advantages for the field of HRD to implement this method.

Although the concept of participant photography is still in its infancy in HRD, this study explains how participant photography can be used for both researchers and practitioners to gain a deeper understanding and knowledge of topics related to HRD.